Arna Bontemps was a well-known American poet and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. As the librarian at Fisk University, he established important collections of African-American literature and culture, establishing it as an important goal of scholarly study. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Arna Bontemps on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. "Arna Bontemps"
This poem by Arna Bontemps was written in the time of the Harlem renaissances and was a vary influential poem to those who read it at the time when discrimination was big. Many of Arna Bontemps poems where influential but The Day-Breakers was the most famous.
poem
The Day-Breakers by Arna Bontemps We are not come to wage a strife
With swords upon this hill,
It is not wise to waste the life
Against a stubborn will.
Yet would we die as some have done.
Beating a way for the rising sun.
Analysis
In this poem by Arna Bontemps I am presented with a meaning of people should not hate or be mad at one another for small things. I get this meaning from when Arna Bontemps writes “it is not wise to waste the life. Against a stubborn will”.The day-breakers" also reflects black power and determination not "to waste the life" yet also an insistence upon acknowledgment: "Yet would we die as some have done:/beating a way for the rising sun." . Many of Arna Bontemps poems where influential but The Day-Breakers was the most famous especially during the time of segregationand discrimination.
Andres "The Day-Breakers" by Arne Bontemps
Intro
Arna Bontemps was a well-known American poet and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. As the librarian at Fisk University, he established important collections of African-American literature and culture, establishing it as an important goal of scholarly study. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Arna Bontemps on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. "Arna Bontemps"
This poem by Arna Bontemps was written in the time of the Harlem renaissances and was a vary influential poem to those who read it at the time when discrimination was big. Many of Arna Bontemps poems where influential but The Day-Breakers was the most famous.
poem
The Day-Breakers by Arna Bontemps
We are not come to wage a strife
With swords upon this hill,
It is not wise to waste the life
Against a stubborn will.
Yet would we die as some have done.
Beating a way for the rising sun.
Analysis
In this poem by Arna Bontemps I am presented with a meaning of people should not hate or be mad at one another for small things. I get this meaning from when Arna Bontemps writes “it is not wise to waste the life. Against a stubborn will”.The day-breakers" also reflects black power and determination not "to waste the life" yet also an insistence upon acknowledgment: "Yet would we die as some have done:/beating a way for the rising sun." . Many of Arna Bontemps poems where influential but The Day-Breakers was the most famous especially during the time of segregationand discrimination.
Bibliography
"Arna Bontemps." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 8 Apr 2009, 01:24 UTC. 19 May 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arna_Bontemps&oldid=282465544>.
picture from flicker www.flickr.com/photos/dj_hiphop/1491210868/
Analysis-From Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 48: American Poets 1880-1945, Second Series. Ed. Peter Quartermain. Copyright © 1986 by the Gale Group. also reproduced in www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/poets/a_f/bontemps/poetry.htm, About Arna Bontemps poetry, Minrose C. Gwin
discrimination- Paul Finkelman, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tulsa College of Law. Author of Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson. Coeditor of The Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery.
"Segregation in the United States," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2009
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2009 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.© 1993-2009 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.